“I am. Traveling with him is fun as hell. We’ll have a ball together.”
Beckett snorted. “Are you kidding? I’m not letting him out of my sight.”
Adam laughed loud. “I don’t blame you.”
Sky snorted and turned to pull the chicken off the fire. “I hope everyone likes fajitas.”
“Oh, wonderful. Can I help? I have expert knife skills.”
Adam nodded. “She really does, she went to NECI.”
“Absolutely. You can cut and I’ll pull out all the bits and bobs. Thank you, ma’am.”
Trish opened the door and held it open so they could walk in, leaving him with Adam and his questions.
Adam came over and took a seat. “You’ve done nice work. I like the addition of the hot tub.”
“Thanks. That was Sky’s idea.” And it had been brilliant. “He plotted and planned, dealt with the contractor, and got it put in.”
“It’s a hell of a commitment, yeah?”
Beckett nodded. “It was an investment, but we’re not going anywhere. And we’ve already enjoyed it a ton. There’s some maintenance, but it’s worth it.” Worth it? Hell, it was practically fun. Every time he checked on the water quality, he had flashbacks to naked husband. No bad there.
“He seems…pretty settled. I have to admit, I’m surprised. This is the longest you two have been anywhere together, isn’t it?”
“By over three months. Of course, he was captive in the house for several of those, but we don’t have to count that.” He leaned back in his chair. “I think he’s going to stay.”
Why did he say it that way? He knew Sky was going to stay. Right? Absolutely. He was pretty sure.
Jesus, Beckett.
“Think?” Of course Adam would pick up on that. “Is everything okay?”
“Great. Really. Everything is great.” Adam was watching him over that margarita glass. “Really.”
“Who are you convincing?”
He sighed. “I’m a little nervous about finals.”
Adam arched an eyebrow at him.
“Not that he won’t come home. He will. Honestly. But I worry about him. I worry about how hard it will be to say he’s retiring, about how high hopes and expectations on him are, about the league and the crowd. I worry what all of that will do to him. I think there’s more pressure there than he’s admitting.”
“Are you not going with him?” What a question. And he deserved to be asked—both as his business partner and a friend.
“I am going. I want to, he’s retiring and I need to be there. I told you I’m not letting him out of my sight. And that’s got nothing to do with his looks. He’s going to need support, I think. I still think it will be stressful, and he’s already so down about not finding worthwhile work.”
“It sounds like he has work—being a champion.”
“It’s work. It’s just not work that he can do from Vermont.” Or work that would pay much after Sky retired and his sponsors started to retreat. “He’s looking for something to occupy his time here.”
“Ah. I’d think he’d be fascinating to the extreme sports people.”
“I wonder if he’s thought about that. ‘Will fascinating translate into work?’ is the question. He’s been pretty creative. I know he has some irons in the fire still, but things happen slowly up here.” Something would happen. He just needed to keep Sky on an even keel until after finals.
“Have you figured out your retirement date yet?” Beck had taken over most of Adam’s clients already and given some of the smaller ones to their senior associate, who, if things went well, would be a new partner not long after Adam walked away.
“I’m considering around the first of the year. We’ll keep it open and—”